All The Ebooks You Can Read: A Netflix-Like Service For Ebooks Named Oyster Gets $3M Investment

Note: We’ve posted and talked (during presentations) many times about “all you can read” ebook services.

While it’s unlikely any one service will “have it all” we think services like the one discussed below, Amazon’s rapidly expanding Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, 24symbols (a service based in Spain) as well as services focused on a specific type of content like info tech books from Safari or art books from F&W Media we think it’s essential that librarians are not only aware of these and other services but what “all you can read services” (aka Spotify-like or Netflix-like) might mean for libraries and ebooks going forward.

While Amazon launched its own lending library on top of its Amazon Prime service, there’s still an opportunity for other competitors to create a Spotify or Netflix for books. That’s the hope of New York City-based Oyster, a new startup which announced today it has raised $3 million led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.

The company is preparing a mobile app that will allow users to get unlimited access to a library of books for one monthly price. The app will combine discovery with access and reading, so users will be able to get recommendations and immediately begin reading. The app was designed from the ground up to optimize the reading experience on mobile devices.

The app will feature a growing catalog of books, from national best sellers to classics, both fiction and non-fiction. Oyster is looking at working directly with publishers, not with authors. The app is being tested right now with a small number of users.

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.